For nearly everything that I do in college, I need access to the Internet: classes, studying, meetings, and, discussions. In class, I access lecture documents on Blackboard. In meetings, I review and send emails. Studying, I research topics online and download information from the library. Essentially, I’m connected to the network constantly, and to be successful, I have to have the ability to connect any time, from anywhere, on any one of my several devices.

As most CIO’s and IT professionals would agree, building a scalable and robust network is a thankless and daunting task. It’s even more difficult in colleges and universities, where enabling tens of thousands of students to quickly and safely access the network is a critical imperative. And if the equipment is unreliable, access is compromised. When this happens, the institution faces difficultly in implementing online teaching initiatives, costs can increase and ultimately, there may be a productivity decrease. Additionally, faculty and students can become disgruntled and unmotivated as a result of network complications.

As Hurricane Isaac is about to make landfall on the Gulf Coast of the United States, I can’t stop thinking about Hurricane Andrew, who hit my hometown in Miami, Florida back on August 24, 1992. Hurricane Andrew, the third costliest hurricane, costing over $26 billion, hit our neighboring city of Homestead, Florida the hardest.

The morning of August 24th, around 3am, I will always remember very clearly. The winds were howling so loud it woke me up. The sky was bloody red. It looked and sounded like a really horrible scary movie. To this day, I can never watch horror movies.

The days that followed were some of the toughest I had experienced. My colleague Mark Rogers’ put it well in his blog he shared “Conditions were terrible”. Looking at the devastation of Hurricane Andrew to our State, our neighbors, our home, what was in front of me was pure sadness. After many, many weeks, school was able to resume in trailers. On the first day back, not all of my friends returned. I heard some decided to move away permanently while others were not ready to return. I remembered my homeroom teacher telling us to stay connected. Read More »

As a nation, we enjoyed a successful and memorable London 2012 Olympic Games and are now enjoying the start of the Paralympic Games. As London 2012 draws to a close, many will be asking what will be left for future generations to enjoy. Following the years of hard work and investment by Great Britain to put on the show that we have, it is now time to think about the future and the benefits of the Olympic Legacy.

To gain better insight into exactly what the British public expect in terms of legacy, we conducted a survey to ask what is important to them personally. The results revealed that over half of Britons surveyed (62%) believe that the Games will benefit UK business in the long term and create a lasting legacy for the country. An impressive 60% of those surveyed also confirmed that they believe the Games may help to improve technology and innovation in the UK, inspiring entrepreneurship within the sector and helping to build a brilliant future for Britain and industry moving forward.

This morning, like most of mornings, I woke up, checked my calendar, and joined a WebEx meeting. After introductions and pleasantries, I listened and conversed with three of my colleagues. Then, at the top of the hour, the conversation concluded, and the group dispersed hurriedly to attend their next meetings. Employees repeat this process almost all day every day. This is how work is done at Cisco. Now, after having been a part of the process for nearly two months, I’m dreading the return to the seemingly archaic way that I work and collaborate with others at school.

This year, I will be a junior at the University of Oregon, and I’m working towards a degree in International Studies with a focus in Business- Marketing. Currently, I’m working as an intern for Cisco’s education marketing team. Read More »

This debate took place across 14 coutries with 18 Cisco TelePresence rooms and featured 23 students who debated the topic following an initial presentation give my Jeremy Gilley.

Jeremy Gilley leads Peace One Day, a global collaboration addressing the challenges of conflict facing the world. Through focusing on making one day of peace in the year, Peace One Day is establishing a foothold in building a more peaceful world.

EFF5 examined the challenges and potential of Learner Voice. It reflected on the development of Peace One Day and investigated the potential for development of student action to make a major positive impact on conflict reduction and resolution. Presentations and debate were led by Jeremy Gilley of Peace One Day and Michael Furdyk of TakingITGlobal, as well as three specially selected student presenters. Further invited student debaters and guests contributed to the debate from across the world. The event was moderated by education and technology advisor, Gavin Dykes. Explore Planet’s EFF pages, read the presenters’ blog posts and be moved to action too!

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